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    creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,745
    First Anniversary 5 Up Votes 5 Awesomes Photogenic
    edited January 2022

    dtd said:

    I see all these new posts about Junior Adams and I’m relieved to see that it’s just hot talk on the value of a college degree.


    Oh no - wait... Oregon hired him? Well. Fuck. Why would we(?) want him(?)



    My two thoughts:
    1. A college degree is definitely worth it. Even if we forego all the non-tangible benefits of college and just use the raw averages readily available - with the hypothetical $100k of debt, it’s worth it. Unless you plan on living under ~12 years after graduation. Save your outlier examples, we do averages like civilized people.

    2. Some of Lanning’s hires don’t make sense. But after Scott Frost all of Oregon’s WR coaches have been shitty, he’s the sixth one since 2016, so it might not matter. If he’s shitty like the rest have been at least its another notch on Oregon’s dicking-of-other-Pac-12-schools belt and a step up from hiring away Leach’s assistants.

    1. Just not true, not today. Using averages from 2 decades ago when people made money writing for newspapers makes no sense. The cash me ousside girl made a million in a weekend showing her meth boobs. Trade schools make way more sense for the vast majority of people.

    2. Memphis of the West
    1. Your observational data aligns with teachers telling kids to learn how to add fractions or they’ll end up as plumbers digging in toilets - but fail to mention that the plumbers make twice as much money as them. However the data I’m referring to is new and shows that based on earnings just two years after graduation 76% of BA/BS degree holders are earning enough to where ten years after graduation they should have recouped their investment.
    This doesn’t take into account the higher employment rates, health insurance rates, and the rates of not being in poverty. The study is from 2020/21 and didn’t take the rocketing inflation into consideration.
    The 24% of those who don’t recoup in ten years should still come out ahead in the long run and the numbers are skewed by more expensive private and for profit institutions. The obvious majors are the ones with poor return: religious studies, anthropology, film, etc.

    It’s still true, maybe not as obvious as in the past, but go to a state school and get a degree that isn’t 100% fluff and you’re going to be better off than most people without one.

    2. I wish, Memphis had some monster offensive numbers. This feels more like an amalgamation of a watered down, poor man’s Saban/Kirby recruiting wins system, with a strong Jim Mora flavor Jr and Todd Graham aftertaste.
    *sigh

    Re: data

    Yes, let's normalize our inherently non-normal data for kurtosis and skew. The overwhelming majority of wealth made that drives up the averages is made by less than 5% of graduate earners.

    Odds are those guys were going to be successful anyways so it's opportunity cost as I mentioned.

    Use the mode instead of the mean.



    Now reverse the process for non-graduates to adjust for people that college would have never benefited anyways.

    Aka you can't fix stupid.

    We haven't even talked about market projection and demographics out over tim.

    TLDR YMMV and correlation ain't causation.
    I have come around to agreeing with this view, overcoming a huge emotional bias on my part in the process. But at today's prices it's hard to justify for at least 50% of the college-attending population.

    There is too much money in financial aid right now that draws too many people into the game. Then again, you don't want it to be a rich man's game either. There is a rough cut people use to describe what it used to be and what it is now by referencing Harvard: 50 years ago Harvard was 75% rich kids of varying degrees of intelligence (see the Kennedys) and 25% brilliant kids. Today, it's flipped, and even Harvard admissions references the "happy bottom 25%", meaning wealthy and hooked kids who will graduate in the bottom 25% and be happy just to have the degree as a social credential.

    I often wonder if we need to go back to that. Let the rich have their spots because in the end they pay for everything, but make sure there is a mechanism to find and develop talent coming from various socio-economic backgrounds. There are too many "middle bell curve" kids spending money - the government's or their parent's - going to college and barely getting anything out of it.

    The thing that makes this topic difficult is the same thing that makes most topics difficult: subtlety. There are soft reasons for getting an education that goes beyond ROI. There's the experience of it and the other things that are harder to pinpoint. If you go to school with smart kids, that will rub off too. There's little question that it can make you better all around even if you're not that gifted to begin with. But at what cost?

    There are legions of kids going to college on mom & dad's dime who are entirely checking the box. I mean, check the fucking box and are barely more intellectually developed than when they got there. Education can be a great thing but you have to actually get one and you have to make it so that it is economically feasible. I myself don't care about the 4-year ROI measure. I play the the long game. But you can't be saddled with six-figure debt for a bachelor's degree.

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    HFNYHFNY Member Posts: 4,523
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    Standard Supporter
    I'd be happy to see him paid $650k but not sure if DeBoer would make him Co-OC?
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    HairyBallsDawgHairyBallsDawg Member Posts: 1,008
    First Anniversary 5 Awesomes 5 Up Votes First Comment

    HFNY said:

    The question is, who do DeBoer / Grubb hire as WR coach now? Is it possible a WR coach can walk (coach) and chew gum (recruit well) at the same time?

    Grant Heard please. Worked with Deboer at Indiana. Currently the Co-OC/Wr coach at Indiana. Recruited DK as well. Only making 425k.
    I'm intrigued. Looks like he was also the WR coach at Ole Miss from 2012-2016 so he was Stringfellow's position coach there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Heard
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    EmotermanEmoterman Member Posts: 3,333
    First Anniversary 5 Awesomes First Comment 5 Up Votes

    Emoterman said:

    People forget that colleges are under no legal obligation to provide a football program

    Just a few more tweaks and its dead for good

    The emotional attachment of a 150 year tradition and people's love of Alma Mater U doesn't translate to the Montlake Junior Seahawks

    The players will never get better pay than they get now over and under the table

    And I've been told a college education is valuable except when it isn't I guess

    I'd have loved a free education. I made my own business decision at 19 and decided 100's of thousands of debt wasn't a good plan for me.

    Yup, thats me. Stacking laundry soap. I also have a healthy 410K, I bought a house and property with a pretty cheap mortgage, paid in cash for the build of another house on my property that my mom retired in and outside of my mortgage I have no debt. I'm certainly not rich but after being a drunk and a coke head for my early adulthood I haven't been entirely stupid with what money I did make. You don't need to go to college if you're not ashamed of stacking cans, digging ditches, building fences, pouring drinks or shoveling shit for a living. All of which I've done at one point or another. Someone's got to do it. Maybe Biden will come through like he said and get that debt off your record. I don't have that problem. I know, take it to the Pump.
    Hold on, so, it's not a joke, you actually are a night stock boy? Union gig for those sweet bennies? (ILTCTB)
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    LawDawg1LawDawg1 Member Posts: 3,756
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    edited January 2022
    ntxduck said:

    Emoterman said:

    People forget that colleges are under no legal obligation to provide a football program

    Just a few more tweaks and its dead for good

    The emotional attachment of a 150 year tradition and people's love of Alma Mater U doesn't translate to the Montlake Junior Seahawks

    The players will never get better pay than they get now over and under the table

    And I've been told a college education is valuable except when it isn't I guess

    I'd have loved a free education. I made my own business decision at 19 and decided 100's of thousands of debt wasn't a good plan for me.

    Yup, thats me. Stacking laundry soap. I also have a healthy 410K, I bought a house and property with a pretty cheap mortgage, paid in cash for the build of another house on my property that my mom retired in and outside of my mortgage I have no debt. I'm certainly not rich but after being a drunk and a coke head for my early adulthood I haven't been entirely stupid with what money I did make. You don't need to go to college if you're not ashamed of stacking cans, digging ditches, building fences, pouring drinks or shoveling shit for a living. All of which I've done at one point or another. Someone's got to do it. Maybe Biden will come through like he said and get that debt off your record. I don't have that problem. I know, take it to the Pump.
    Whatever you got to tell yourself to not face the reality of earlier poor decisions, man
    I bet you thought this wouldn’t backfire in your fucking face. Sad!
  • Options
    ChillyDawgChillyDawg Member Posts: 1,469
    First Comment 5 Awesomes 5 Up Votes Name Dropper
    1. Thomas Ford, UW Offensive Analyst
    2. Jermaine Kearse, Former UW receiver
    3. Joel Filani, Texas Tech Receivers Coach
    4. Kirby Moore, Fresno State Offensive Coordinator
    5. Tyler Osborne, Sacramento State Wide receivers coach
    From UW Daily:
    Adams was a key figure in recruiting sophomore wide receivers Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze to UW. The two former four-star wideouts will likely follow Adams to Oregon. Four-star wide receiver Germie Bernard headlined UW’s class on early signing day in December, but his future is certainly up in the air following the Adams news, along with the rest of the Huskies’ pass-catchers.
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    DoogerMcFarlandDoogerMcFarland Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 739
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    edited January 2022
    And Filani is apparently headed to WSU.
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    greenbloodgreenblood Member Posts: 14,279
    First Anniversary 5 Awesomes First Comment Combo Breaker

    HFNY said:

    The question is, who do DeBoer / Grubb hire as WR coach now? Is it possible a WR coach can walk (coach) and chew gum (recruit well) at the same time?

    Grant Heard please. Worked with Deboer at Indiana. Currently the Co-OC/Wr coach at Indiana. Recruited DK as well. Only making 425k.
    Indiana is the better job.
  • Options
    RatherBeBrewingRatherBeBrewing Member Posts: 1,557
    First Anniversary 5 Up Votes First Comment 5 Awesomes

    dtd said:

    I see all these new posts about Junior Adams and I’m relieved to see that it’s just hot talk on the value of a college degree.


    Oh no - wait... Oregon hired him? Well. Fuck. Why would we(?) want him(?)



    My two thoughts:
    1. A college degree is definitely worth it. Even if we forego all the non-tangible benefits of college and just use the raw averages readily available - with the hypothetical $100k of debt, it’s worth it. Unless you plan on living under ~12 years after graduation. Save your outlier examples, we do averages like civilized people.

    2. Some of Lanning’s hires don’t make sense. But after Scott Frost all of Oregon’s WR coaches have been shitty, he’s the sixth one since 2016, so it might not matter. If he’s shitty like the rest have been at least its another notch on Oregon’s dicking-of-other-Pac-12-schools belt and a step up from hiring away Leach’s assistants.

    1. Just not true, not today. Using averages from 2 decades ago when people made money writing for newspapers makes no sense. The cash me ousside girl made a million in a weekend showing her meth boobs. Trade schools make way more sense for the vast majority of people.

    2. Memphis of the West
    1. Your observational data aligns with teachers telling kids to learn how to add fractions or they’ll end up as plumbers digging in toilets - but fail to mention that the plumbers make twice as much money as them. However the data I’m referring to is new and shows that based on earnings just two years after graduation 76% of BA/BS degree holders are earning enough to where ten years after graduation they should have recouped their investment.
    This doesn’t take into account the higher employment rates, health insurance rates, and the rates of not being in poverty. The study is from 2020/21 and didn’t take the rocketing inflation into consideration.
    The 24% of those who don’t recoup in ten years should still come out ahead in the long run and the numbers are skewed by more expensive private and for profit institutions. The obvious majors are the ones with poor return: religious studies, anthropology, film, etc.

    It’s still true, maybe not as obvious as in the past, but go to a state school and get a degree that isn’t 100% fluff and you’re going to be better off than most people without one.

    2. I wish, Memphis had some monster offensive numbers. This feels more like an amalgamation of a watered down, poor man’s Saban/Kirby recruiting wins system, with a strong Jim Mora flavor Jr and Todd Graham aftertaste.
    *sigh

    Re: data

    TLDR YMMV and correlation ain't causation.
    I don’t brew anything beyond cold brew coffee. I fiddled with beer for a while. It was an interesting concept, at the time I used to drink and appreciate it, and I’m always of the notion that I can do something better than almost everyone else if I try. My beer was actually pretty good despite me humbly underselling it, but I didn’t have the passion or interest to pursue the hobby any further. Instead, I got into playing tennis. Worse for the knees, but much better for the liver.

    I’m sharing this so you don’t have to feel bad about the lack of correlation between your username and the results that it yields.

    I’ll give you credit for attempting to mention the hidden variables any data like this will entail. The people who get college degrees were already likelier to have higher incomes based on their socio-economic background, intelligence, ambition, primary education, desire to seek full employment, opportunity, regional differences, and a variety of other factors that are so numerous it would make creating two sets of data to compare nearly impossible.

    I’ll also add that I agree that too many people are going to college, the return on a degree has declined, some degrees are not worth the opportunity cost - all these obvious things that college grads want to crown themselves as champions of the proletariat for agreeing with. As if it costs their diploma prestige points that they’re valiantly sacrificing.

    I could (don’t worry, I won’t) explain the various statistics that show I’m right. We could look at the opportunity costs associated with not attending college or required of getting a blue collar job with a comparable income to a mid level bachelors degree, the time value of money, social costs such as the likelihood of marrying someone with similar educational status and the resulting doubling of what you perceive to be a small income gap, financial literacy the likelier physical toll of a blue collar job and the effect on life expectancy or healthcare costs - and many more boring things.

    I never took Brevity 121, it wasn’t a required pre-req, so I suppressed my desire to explain even more. Like a Trading Places Duke Brothers style experiment I had in mind, or using Plinko as a visual example of the doors that become closed to those who don’t pursue higher education. Maybe the status quo will change in the next 20 years and you’ll be right. It’s very possible - just ask any Nebraska, Washington, or Virginia Tech fan.
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    creepycougcreepycoug Member Posts: 22,745
    First Anniversary 5 Up Votes 5 Awesomes Photogenic

    dtd said:

    I see all these new posts about Junior Adams and I’m relieved to see that it’s just hot talk on the value of a college degree.


    Oh no - wait... Oregon hired him? Well. Fuck. Why would we(?) want him(?)



    My two thoughts:
    1. A college degree is definitely worth it. Even if we forego all the non-tangible benefits of college and just use the raw averages readily available - with the hypothetical $100k of debt, it’s worth it. Unless you plan on living under ~12 years after graduation. Save your outlier examples, we do averages like civilized people.

    2. Some of Lanning’s hires don’t make sense. But after Scott Frost all of Oregon’s WR coaches have been shitty, he’s the sixth one since 2016, so it might not matter. If he’s shitty like the rest have been at least its another notch on Oregon’s dicking-of-other-Pac-12-schools belt and a step up from hiring away Leach’s assistants.

    1. Just not true, not today. Using averages from 2 decades ago when people made money writing for newspapers makes no sense. The cash me ousside girl made a million in a weekend showing her meth boobs. Trade schools make way more sense for the vast majority of people.

    2. Memphis of the West
    1. Your observational data aligns with teachers telling kids to learn how to add fractions or they’ll end up as plumbers digging in toilets - but fail to mention that the plumbers make twice as much money as them. However the data I’m referring to is new and shows that based on earnings just two years after graduation 76% of BA/BS degree holders are earning enough to where ten years after graduation they should have recouped their investment.
    This doesn’t take into account the higher employment rates, health insurance rates, and the rates of not being in poverty. The study is from 2020/21 and didn’t take the rocketing inflation into consideration.
    The 24% of those who don’t recoup in ten years should still come out ahead in the long run and the numbers are skewed by more expensive private and for profit institutions. The obvious majors are the ones with poor return: religious studies, anthropology, film, etc.

    It’s still true, maybe not as obvious as in the past, but go to a state school and get a degree that isn’t 100% fluff and you’re going to be better off than most people without one.

    2. I wish, Memphis had some monster offensive numbers. This feels more like an amalgamation of a watered down, poor man’s Saban/Kirby recruiting wins system, with a strong Jim Mora flavor Jr and Todd Graham aftertaste.
    *sigh

    Re: data

    TLDR YMMV and correlation ain't causation.
    I never took Brevity 121, it wasn’t a required pre-req, so I suppressed my desire to explain even more. Like a Trading Places Duke Brothers style experiment I had in mind, or using Plinko as a visual example of the doors that become closed to those who don’t pursue higher education. Maybe the status quo will change in the next 20 years and you’ll be right. It’s very possible - just ask any Nebraska, Washington, or Virginia Tech fan.
    Chinned for Brevity 121.

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    Kingdome_UrinalsKingdome_Urinals Member Posts: 2,606
    First Comment 5 Up Votes First Anniversary 5 Awesomes

    dtd said:

    I see all these new posts about Junior Adams and I’m relieved to see that it’s just hot talk on the value of a college degree.


    Oh no - wait... Oregon hired him? Well. Fuck. Why would we(?) want him(?)



    My two thoughts:
    1. A college degree is definitely worth it. Even if we forego all the non-tangible benefits of college and just use the raw averages readily available - with the hypothetical $100k of debt, it’s worth it. Unless you plan on living under ~12 years after graduation. Save your outlier examples, we do averages like civilized people.

    2. Some of Lanning’s hires don’t make sense. But after Scott Frost all of Oregon’s WR coaches have been shitty, he’s the sixth one since 2016, so it might not matter. If he’s shitty like the rest have been at least its another notch on Oregon’s dicking-of-other-Pac-12-schools belt and a step up from hiring away Leach’s assistants.

    1. Just not true, not today. Using averages from 2 decades ago when people made money writing for newspapers makes no sense. The cash me ousside girl made a million in a weekend showing her meth boobs. Trade schools make way more sense for the vast majority of people.

    2. Memphis of the West
    1. Your observational data aligns with teachers telling kids to learn how to add fractions or they’ll end up as plumbers digging in toilets - but fail to mention that the plumbers make twice as much money as them. However the data I’m referring to is new and shows that based on earnings just two years after graduation 76% of BA/BS degree holders are earning enough to where ten years after graduation they should have recouped their investment.
    This doesn’t take into account the higher employment rates, health insurance rates, and the rates of not being in poverty. The study is from 2020/21 and didn’t take the rocketing inflation into consideration.
    The 24% of those who don’t recoup in ten years should still come out ahead in the long run and the numbers are skewed by more expensive private and for profit institutions. The obvious majors are the ones with poor return: religious studies, anthropology, film, etc.

    It’s still true, maybe not as obvious as in the past, but go to a state school and get a degree that isn’t 100% fluff and you’re going to be better off than most people without one.

    2. I wish, Memphis had some monster offensive numbers. This feels more like an amalgamation of a watered down, poor man’s Saban/Kirby recruiting wins system, with a strong Jim Mora flavor Jr and Todd Graham aftertaste.
    *sigh

    Re: data

    Yes, let's normalize our inherently non-normal data for kurtosis and skew. The overwhelming majority of wealth made that drives up the averages is made by less than 5% of graduate earners.

    Odds are those guys were going to be successful anyways so it's opportunity cost as I mentioned.

    Use the mode instead of the mean.



    Now reverse the process for non-graduates to adjust for people that college would have never benefited anyways.

    Aka you can't fix stupid.

    We haven't even talked about market projection and demographics out over tim.

    TLDR YMMV and correlation ain't causation.
    I have come around to agreeing with this view, overcoming a huge emotional bias on my part in the process. But at today's prices it's hard to justify for at least 50% of the college-attending population.

    There is too much money in financial aid right now that draws too many people into the game. Then again, you don't want it to be a rich man's game either. There is a rough cut people use to describe what it used to be and what it is now by referencing Harvard: 50 years ago Harvard was 75% rich kids of varying degrees of intelligence (see the Kennedys) and 25% brilliant kids. Today, it's flipped, and even Harvard admissions references the "happy bottom 25%", meaning wealthy and hooked kids who will graduate in the bottom 25% and be happy just to have the degree as a social credential.

    I often wonder if we need to go back to that. Let the rich have their spots because in the end they pay for everything, but make sure there is a mechanism to find and develop talent coming from various socio-economic backgrounds. There are too many "middle bell curve" kids spending money - the government's or their parent's - going to college and barely getting anything out of it.

    The thing that makes this topic difficult is the same thing that makes most topics difficult: subtlety. There are soft reasons for getting an education that goes beyond ROI. There's the experience of it and the other things that are harder to pinpoint. If you go to school with smart kids, that will rub off too. There's little question that it can make you better all around even if you're not that gifted to begin with. But at what cost?

    There are legions of kids going to college on mom & dad's dime who are entirely checking the box. I mean, check the fucking box and are barely more intellectually developed than when they got there. Education can be a great thing but you have to actually get one and you have to make it so that it is economically feasible. I myself don't care about the 4-year ROI measure. I play the the long game. But you can't be saddled with six-figure debt for a bachelor's degree.

    College is simply associated with social prestige and higher earnings. Even if college grads don't always make more money, it doesn't really matter. Mass higher education is a social norm in the developed world and middle-class people will do whatever it takes to maintain social prestige.

    Most jobs, even prestigious jobs, don't actually require discrete and measurable cognitive skills. They do however, prefer people with higher credentials because of socitety-wide academic credential inflation.

    College is also preferable for middle-class mating. Not just for the opportunity for to hook up with enormous varieties of potential partners, but also for social prestige thereafter. Try getting an attractive, upwardly-mobile girlfriend without a college degree and decent-seeming job. People with more education also tend to have more successful marriages and create more stable families. College tends to be the crucible of this social process.

    Lastly, the environment of college is considered inherently pleasurable by many people.



    I agree with pretty much all of that. I used to say all the time that I don't care where my Ds meet their future husbands as long as it's not in HS. Just playing the rough odds there.

    That said, a seriously earnest kid who wants to start a plumbing business (as in, eventually having people do the actual work for him while he invests capital and directs traffic) is preferable to me than a kid who spends 4 years drunk at Cuog, learns next to nothing, scrapes by and confuses the fact that he was rush chairman of his frat with prestige. He ain't got no fucking prestige, and the future plumber is already well ahead of him.
    Yeah, a lot of kids are completely lost at college and have no appreciation for the opportunities they have. I don't think college is necessarily worth it financially and if a kid doesn't want to go they shouldn't.

    However, in the generally widespread absence of high-wage blue collar work many young people don't see a lot of great options out there. If you go to college you might feel like you're on the right track, at least for a few years.

    There's always a few people in the tech industry who didn't go to college, and it's not always necessary for that, but the money, research, and personal networks are clustered around the high prestige institutions.

  • Options
    BonerBoner Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 198
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    Founders Club

    dtd said:

    I see all these new posts about Junior Adams and I’m relieved to see that it’s just hot talk on the value of a college degree.


    Oh no - wait... Oregon hired him? Well. Fuck. Why would we(?) want him(?)



    My two thoughts:
    1. A college degree is definitely worth it. Even if we forego all the non-tangible benefits of college and just use the raw averages readily available - with the hypothetical $100k of debt, it’s worth it. Unless you plan on living under ~12 years after graduation. Save your outlier examples, we do averages like civilized people.

    2. Some of Lanning’s hires don’t make sense. But after Scott Frost all of Oregon’s WR coaches have been shitty, he’s the sixth one since 2016, so it might not matter. If he’s shitty like the rest have been at least its another notch on Oregon’s dicking-of-other-Pac-12-schools belt and a step up from hiring away Leach’s assistants.

    1. Just not true, not today. Using averages from 2 decades ago when people made money writing for newspapers makes no sense. The cash me ousside girl made a million in a weekend showing her meth boobs. Trade schools make way more sense for the vast majority of people.

    2. Memphis of the West
    1. Your observational data aligns with teachers telling kids to learn how to add fractions or they’ll end up as plumbers digging in toilets - but fail to mention that the plumbers make twice as much money as them. However the data I’m referring to is new and shows that based on earnings just two years after graduation 76% of BA/BS degree holders are earning enough to where ten years after graduation they should have recouped their investment.
    This doesn’t take into account the higher employment rates, health insurance rates, and the rates of not being in poverty. The study is from 2020/21 and didn’t take the rocketing inflation into consideration.
    The 24% of those who don’t recoup in ten years should still come out ahead in the long run and the numbers are skewed by more expensive private and for profit institutions. The obvious majors are the ones with poor return: religious studies, anthropology, film, etc.

    It’s still true, maybe not as obvious as in the past, but go to a state school and get a degree that isn’t 100% fluff and you’re going to be better off than most people without one.

    2. I wish, Memphis had some monster offensive numbers. This feels more like an amalgamation of a watered down, poor man’s Saban/Kirby recruiting wins system, with a strong Jim Mora flavor Jr and Todd Graham aftertaste.
    *sigh

    Re: data

    Yes, let's normalize our inherently non-normal data for kurtosis and skew. The overwhelming majority of wealth made that drives up the averages is made by less than 5% of graduate earners.

    Odds are those guys were going to be successful anyways so it's opportunity cost as I mentioned.

    Use the mode instead of the mean.



    Now reverse the process for non-graduates to adjust for people that college would have never benefited anyways.

    Aka you can't fix stupid.

    We haven't even talked about market projection and demographics out over tim.

    TLDR YMMV and correlation ain't causation.
    I have come around to agreeing with this view, overcoming a huge emotional bias on my part in the process. But at today's prices it's hard to justify for at least 50% of the college-attending population.

    There is too much money in financial aid right now that draws too many people into the game. Then again, you don't want it to be a rich man's game either. There is a rough cut people use to describe what it used to be and what it is now by referencing Harvard: 50 years ago Harvard was 75% rich kids of varying degrees of intelligence (see the Kennedys) and 25% brilliant kids. Today, it's flipped, and even Harvard admissions references the "happy bottom 25%", meaning wealthy and hooked kids who will graduate in the bottom 25% and be happy just to have the degree as a social credential.

    I often wonder if we need to go back to that. Let the rich have their spots because in the end they pay for everything, but make sure there is a mechanism to find and develop talent coming from various socio-economic backgrounds. There are too many "middle bell curve" kids spending money - the government's or their parent's - going to college and barely getting anything out of it.

    The thing that makes this topic difficult is the same thing that makes most topics difficult: subtlety. There are soft reasons for getting an education that goes beyond ROI. There's the experience of it and the other things that are harder to pinpoint. If you go to school with smart kids, that will rub off too. There's little question that it can make you better all around even if you're not that gifted to begin with. But at what cost?

    There are legions of kids going to college on mom & dad's dime who are entirely checking the box. I mean, check the fucking box and are barely more intellectually developed than when they got there. Education can be a great thing but you have to actually get one and you have to make it so that it is economically feasible. I myself don't care about the 4-year ROI measure. I play the the long game. But you can't be saddled with six-figure debt for a bachelor's degree.

    College is simply associated with social prestige and higher earnings. Even if college grads don't always make more money, it doesn't really matter. Mass higher education is a social norm in the developed world and middle-class people will do whatever it takes to maintain social prestige.

    Most jobs, even prestigious jobs, don't actually require discrete and measurable cognitive skills. They do however, prefer people with higher credentials because of socitety-wide academic credential inflation.

    College is also preferable for middle-class mating. Not just for the opportunity for to hook up with enormous varieties of potential partners, but also for social prestige thereafter. Try getting an attractive, upwardly-mobile girlfriend without a college degree and decent-seeming job. People with more education also tend to have more successful marriages and create more stable families. College tends to be the crucible of this social process.

    Lastly, the environment of college is considered inherently pleasurable by many people.



    I agree with pretty much all of that. I used to say all the time that I don't care where my Ds meet their future husbands as long as it's not in HS. Just playing the rough odds there.

    That said, a seriously earnest kid who wants to start a plumbing business (as in, eventually having people do the actual work for him while he invests capital and directs traffic) is preferable to me than a kid who spends 4 years drunk at Cuog, learns next to nothing, scrapes by and confuses the fact that he was rush chairman of his frat with prestige. He ain't got no fucking prestige, and the future plumber is already well ahead of him.
    Yeah, a lot of kids are completely lost at college and have no appreciation for the opportunities they have. I don't think college is necessarily worth it financially and if a kid doesn't want to go they shouldn't.

    However, in the generally widespread absence of high-wage blue collar work many young people don't see a lot of great options out there. If you go to college you might feel like you're on the right track, at least for a few years.

    There's always a few people in the tech industry who didn't go to college, and it's not always necessary for that, but the money, research, and personal networks are clustered around the high prestige institutions.

    There are actually a lot of high wage blue collar careers available, the issue is finding a kid who knows which end of a screwdriver to use or is at least willing to learn.

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